Campus speakers rock GW
With visits from Hillary Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and four former White House press secretaries, GW saw a number of esteemed campus speakers this month. The University is a frequent destination for celebrity speakers, but these noteworthy names never fail to remind us that GW truly is a University in and of the nation’s capital.
Silence the D.C. noise ordinance
The hustle and bustle of commuters and the nighttime jaunts of college students across the city comprise D.C.’s daily rhythm. There’s just no way around it – cities are loud. So we can’t help but think the new D.C. noise ordinance law is unfair and should be repealed. Its vague wording (it is illegal to make “unreasonably loud noise” between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.) allows college students to be punished easily for rowdiness or even just talking on a walk back from the library.
New campaign helps cigarette habit go up in smoke
GW unveiled a new campaign to help students quit their smoking habits. While nationwide schools have approached smoking by flatly abolishing it – an act that often repels students from kicking their habits – GW is notably encouraging students to quit and providing them with the resources to do so.
Decentralized Career Center means greater focus
The University is considering decentralizing the Career Center, allowing for school-specific centers to cater to student needs. We have seen this model work with the GW Business School’s personalized career center and so we encourage GW to adopt such a design for all of the schools on campus. Decentralized career centers will allow for staff members to be more well-versed in the schools’ respective needs, which is an asset when students seek careers after graduation or work during college.
3,000 Campaign
In response to findings that GW students are uninformed about sexual assault and available resources for sexual assault victims, GW Students Against Sexual Assault launched a campaign known as the 3,000 Campaign to raise awareness. This was a notable effort to educate students on an important topic, but the statistics they used combined data from multiple studies and were thus slightly exaggerated. This is an important issue that deserves attention, but not in a way that appears untruthful and could jeopardize the good work of this student org.
Alt Breaks gets a financial break
The Alternative Breaks program gives Colonials the opportunity to spend their winter or spring vacations giving back to communities across the country, and around the world. The student-run organization under the Office of Community Service has previously struggled to fund trips seeing as it largely relies on donations and fundraising. But the program will now receive funds from the Student Association, marking a laudable change for the students involved with Alt Breaks.
Black hole envelopes Foggy Bottom Metro escalators
A Foggy Bottom Metro escalator, which should probably be referred to as Foggy Bottom Metro stairs, collapsed Friday morning during rush hour commute. No one was injured, but it did cause delays. While Metro looks into what caused the incident, the numerous issues with the escalators have plagued the station for far too long. We hope that repairs fix the problems once and for all, and that similar incidents do not occur again.
Three shots for Knapp
You probably didn’t think you would ever see a video of University President Steven Knapp dancing. Nor did you think you would see a video of him dancing to party song “Shots.” Neither did we. But thanks to the video editing skills of unknown students, a video of our University president dancing to the song went viral, and became GW’s own YouTube sensation. We don’t know how Knapp feels about the dubbed video, but it is still online, and for that, we are happy.
